The festival will screen features, shorts and documentaries that highlight meaningful solutions to pervasive social issues, and will include Q&A sessions, post-screening receptions and a keynote by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman.

Among the films slated are NYWIFT member Jules Suo's narrative short 528 New York, which tells of a young man subject to the NYPD's Stop and Frisk policies and serves as a prequel to her feature-length Dosi.

Vanya Exerjian Award for Empowering Women and Girls designed by Michael Ara and presented by her Excellency Ambassador Simona Miculescu, Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations

Other films include opening night's Mamarosh (Momcilo Mrdakovic), The Defector (Ann Shin), Forward 13: Waking Up the American Dream (Patrick Lovell), Small Small Thing (Jessica Vale), Not Who We Are (Carol Mansour) and The Throwaways (Bhawin Suchak & Ira McKinley).

Tickets are $8 for NYWIFT members, seniors and children, and $11 for general admission. For more information on the festival, visit Rated SR's page. Stay tuned for festival coverage at the NYWIFT blog.

NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.